I discovered Will Durant many, many years ago when I was about 20...Now 41 years later at 61 his incredible scholarship combined with his superlative skills as a writer make resding him as fresh as it was more than four decades ago
Thank heavens for Will Durant.

I'm setting out on a monumental task: I've now aquired all 11 books in S.of C. and am determined to read all straight through. At one time or another I've read some of the books, however very intermittently, very incompletely....But by Jove I'm gone do it....if it takes years!!!! Well being a young, or at least youthful feeling 61 years of age I gots something to keep me alive

Y'all wish me luck!!!!!!

I've had the hard cover set for over 45 years. Was a pain to research them. This will be immensely easier. Been collecting quotes for over 55 years and these books are chock full of nuggets: Here is a sample!

Order is the mother of civilization and liberty; chaos is the midwife of dictatorship; therefore history may now and then say a good word for kings.

But in time he learned to speak German, Spanish, Italian, and French, and could be silent in five languages.

It is almost a law of history that the same wealth that generates a civilization announces its decay. For wealth produces ease as well as art; it softens a people to the ways of luxury and peace, and invites invasion from stronger arms and hungrier mouths.

In the end nothing is lost; for good or evil every event has effects forever.

In the end, the wise man dies as thoroughly as the fool, and both come to the same odor.

For anyone who loves learning about history without tedium or dry historical facts, Will Durant and his wife Ethel, or Ariel, as Will named her are God sends. They write history with all the skills of a great novelist. Their works are absolute page turners

Thank you to give us very good collection.

I downloaded The Story of Civilization so I could copy the pithy prose of Will Durant. I have several books and have gone through two highlighter pens. I figured it would be quicker and cheaper if I downloaded the books digitally.

Will grew up in another age, and yes, you may find an objectionable line here and there, but his work stands solidly upon the research of Will and his wife. No matter what we read, the author or authors twist their work to suit their values. It is up to us, the reader, to recognize dated remarks and move on. Durant is one of the masters of prose and a remarkable storyteller.

Anyone who loves to read should not go through this life without reading at least one of Will Durant's works.

As full of wonder and quotable prose as any other work you will ever read. Yes, the books have a fair share of misogyny and racism, homophobia and anti-communist propagandizing as one might expect from anything published during it's tenor. But, forgiving those shortcomings, the work...the work is amazing.

When I first started reading the series in March of 2018, it was my intent to keep a little book of quotes. I didn't make it halfway through the first book before I realized that there was simply too much that was quotable. By the time I finished book 11 in February of 2019, I felt like my whole entire life (and language) had been upgraded in a deep and meaningful way.

The writing is done with the eloquence of a great bard or statesman - behold, just two quotes among thousands:

"Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice."

"One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say."

If you are the kind of person who looks at that second quote and feels not only the weight of what it says, but the beauty in the way it is written, then you are going to love these books. If that sentence speaks to you, then you are going to start loving these volumes on page one, and you will never stop loving them.

It has only been a few weeks since I finished "The Age of Napoleon" and I am looking at "Our Oriental Heritage" with hungry eyes. If your brain is up to it, there is no greater favor you can do for yourself than to read these books.

Thank you, I need some information from volume 3 which I got. Thank you again for the upload.